Sell Your Body to the Night
by IronAmerica
Summary: His nephew is like a bird whose wings have been broken. (This story necessitates quite a few tissues.)


It's a new story. Miles is reminded of a broken bird when he sees his nephew.

Un-beta'ed, so quibble away.

And seriously, there are no happy moments here. You are _seriously_ going to need the tissues.

- o – o -

Sell Your Body to the Night

Miles doesn't plan on kidnapping his nephew, but it's the only choice.

He wishes it wasn't. Danny's already so damaged; any shock might break him. But Charlie's on the warpath now, and Miles can't stop her. Hurricane Charlie is on the move, and what Charlie wants, Charlie gets. She's planning to assault Philadelphia, and Miles wonders what changed when he hears her call her brother "collateral damage".

It's been nearly four years since her brother was taken. Four years for her to change. Charlie's become harder, bitter, more jaded. Miles almost misses the annoying, whiny, wide-eyed idealist his niece was. He misses how she never stopped talking about her little brother, and how she was going to bring the power back on so she could put him in a plastic bubble—like in the movie Aaron talked about. (Miles thinks it's an incredibly stupid idea, but Charlie had been happy and glowing with good cheer as she talked, so he hadn't stopped her.)

So he kidnaps Danny.

Danny only knows him as "Shadow", a nickname that Miles thinks is silly but somehow appropriate. He sends his message to Danny, this time with a single white rose attached. Danny is waiting for him in the living room when he comes, blindfold tied tightly over his eyes. Miles stops and tries not to make any noise. Danny is holding the white rose in his hands, a sweet smile curving his lips as he twirls the stem. Even after everything the boy has gone through, he's still so innocent.

Miles feels guilty as he wraps an arm around his nephew's neck and presses a chloroform-soaked pad over the boy's mouth and nose with the other. The white rose is crushed during the struggle. Danny is unconscious for the ride back to Charlie's headquarters, head lolling against Miles' chest.

Charlie only looks at Danny, before she scowls at Miles. She coldly informs him that he took a huge risk. And, so completely unlike the Charlie of even a year ago, tells him that Danny could have been a valuable piece on the board—they could have paid him to assassinate General Monroe, or to slip poison into the drinks of the various officers who visit him and pay for services, never mind that he would have been killed the instant he was discovered.

Miles leaves in disgust the next day, wondering where his caring, kind niece went and when this monster replaced her. Danny has to be tied up and gagged, and Miles wishes there was something he could do to comfort the boy as he sobs into his blindfold, trembling in sheer, abject terror at what he must think Miles will do to him. (Miles wishes he could have told Danny that he was the kid's uncle. He didn't, because he'd have been taking a huge risk.)

His nephew sits in the tent that Miles acquires from an old friend—a real one, this time, one who doesn't hold a grudge, although given the amount of LSD and pot done in that man's house…—staring out the tent flap. Danny's blindfold has been removed, as have his bonds and gag. He doesn't move, even when Miles offers him food.

Miles is reminded of an eagle. There had been one at the Chicago Zoo, before the lights went out. Something or someone had snapped the magnificent creature's wings. It had been rescued, but it had been so depressed… Miles remembers Bass, who'd still been (relatively) innocent at that time, burying his face in his hands and sobbing. The eagle had recovered, eventually, but Miles had heard, from Ben, that it had never flown again. The veterinarians and an animal psychiatrist said the poor thing had lost its will to fly, to live…

He can't stand to see that happen to his nephew. Miles spends a week trying to coax Danny into eating, before Danny finally whispers that, no thank you he's not actually hungry. Miles ties the boy up and holds his nephew's head on his lap, feeding him a little bit at a time. He rubs Danny's throat to make him swallow, and runs his hands over the kid's belly afterwards to make sure the kid isn't about to force himself to throw up.

Later, Miles learns that Jeremy had done the same thing, numerous times. He doesn't have the heart to tell Danny that Jeremy was one of the first people Charlie executed in her purge. His eagle's wings have already been broken. Miles doesn't want to rip the splints off those healing wounds.

Danny begins to walk around on his own a few weeks into Charlie's purge of Philadelphia. They can see the fires burning from their location and, if the wind is right, the smell of cooking meat. It's not a pleasant scent, and Miles complies instantly when Danny begs to move camp somewhere else.

The little bird's wings begin to heal two months after Miles kidnapped him. Miles can't believe it when he wakes up one morning to see his nephew cooking something that smells appetizing. He pinches himself to make sure he isn't dreaming when he wakes up a little more and realizes that Danny is actually _singing_. He pretends to be asleep a little longer, just so he can capture the image of his nephew, happy and content.

Miles reads the paper that Danny had been reading as he prepared breakfast. Colonel Faber was executed. He'd been hung. Charlie had cut the head off the corpse and added it to her growing collection of shrunken head-footballs. Miles clips the relevant parts of the article and burns the rest of the paper. Danny starts a scrapbook.

The older man holds his nephew later when the boy learns of Jeremy's death. Danny sobs, and it's as if he'll never stop. Miles' shirt is soaked and sticking to his shoulder, but he can't let go. Not now. He's cried his last tears years ago, but Danny still has plenty to shed. Miles wishes Charlie had known that Jeremy Baker had never touched Danny, except to get him to eat.

In between his sobs and hiccups, Danny lets the whole story about his odd relationship with Jeremy Baker come out. Jeremy paid well for his services—more than Strausser and General Monroe combined—all so he could have a quiet dinner. When he'd discovered that Danny had stopped eating and was losing weight at a dangerous pace, he'd added more services to his account. Danny had gained his weight back. Miles strokes the young man's hair as he sobs himself to sleep.

The eagle's wings have been broken again. Danny's wings will never heal. Miles wishes he could do more.

Nora joins them three months after Miles took Danny away from Charlie's camp. She has a knotted scar stretching from her throat all the way to her belly button. Charlie tried to kill her for defending Neville. Nora survived. Neville is still missing. Miles only lets Nora near Danny after he extracts a promise from her that she will mention _nothing_ of what the boy's sister has become, or how many people have died.

Danny doesn't need to know that his sister has become a monster.

The road to hell, after all, is paved with good intentions.

Neville surfaces several weeks after Nora. His bruised, battered wife clings to his coat and whimpers in fear and distress when her husband disappears, even for a few seconds. Unsurprisingly to Miles, Julia and Danny bond. Julia has lost her son, has almost lost her husband. Danny's lost his sister, and has lost the family he built for himself.

Danny's wings begin to heal as he forms a bond with Julia Neville. Miles encourages the bond to form. They've both been tortured, have lost loved ones. They need each other, for support, for friendship, for someone who _knows_.

Miles doesn't hesitate to shoot Charlie when he sees her again. It's a warning shot fired into the meat of her thigh, but it makes his point clear. Charlie's attempted to take Danny back. She wants to lock her baby brother up in a plush room in what had once been Monroe's private home. Miles finds his friend locked in a room in the basement.

For all that Monroe has done, Miles still feels pity and compassion for the man. He shoots his best friend in the head, granting him a quicker death then what he would have had under Charlie's tender mercies. Bass' eyes, which are milky and unfocused, lock with his mere seconds before the gun goes off. For a second, Miles can see Bass, the goofy sergeant who played with baby Danny and bought a much younger Charlie illicit ice creams behind her uncle and daddy's backs.

He lets Danny comfort him later. His little bird is no longer an eagle, but that's alright. The pride is gone from his nephew, but the compassion still remains.

A year after Charlie becomes the new president of the Monroe Republic—which now encompasses the original republic and what had once been the Georgia Confederation—Miles sees his bird stretch his wings and fly.

It is so beautiful, and he nearly cries. Miles uses a camera to capture the moment forever.

He keeps the picture in his breast pocket, just over his heart, as he walks to Philadelphia with nothing but sorrow and his own memories to accompany him.

Miles wishes he could see Danny spread his wings one last time.

- o – o -

So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Wish Miles had been able to have his happy ending? Drop a line and let me know.

Author's note: This concludes the Red Light trilogy. And no, I really don't know where evil!Charlie sprang up from...


End file.
